hatched in the feminal Veffels of the Woman, as When it paffes through the Organs of both Sexes? Why should the Animalculum, or little Animal, go fuch a tedious Progrefs, make fuch a round-about Tour, when there is so much nearer a Road, fo much fhorter a Cut into Day-light? As to what the great Philofopher mentions of Strainers in the Bodies of Males, that was plainly owing to his Want of Skill in Anatomy; and the only Doubt now remaining with me was, whether Animalcula did really float about in the Air, and flide down the Throat as he described ? for I had been used to think they were originally lodged in the Loins of the Males: But if Mr. Woollafton's Hypothefis could be proved, the Consequence, I thought, would then be eafy and undeniable. Here again I was at a Stand; all before me was Darkness and Doubt; I knew not if there were any fuch Animalcula, or, if there were, I supposed them too fmall to be discovered by the naked Eye; and though perhaps they might be difcernible with the Help of a Microscope, yet I knew not where to feek for those opportune Places, hinted at by the great Metaphyfician.

In this fecond Perplexity, Fortune again stept in to my Affiftance, and my Doubts were unriddled by the following Paffage in Virgil's Geargicks:

Ore omnes verfæ in Zephyros ftant rupibus altis,
Exceptantque leves auras; et fæpe fine ullis
Conjugiis vento gravida (mirabile dictu)
Saxa per et fcopulos et depreffas convalles
Diffugiunt; non, Eure, tuos, neque Solis ad ortus,
In Boream Caurumque, aut unde nigerrimus Außter
Nafcitur, et pluvio contriftat frigore calum,

+3

Thus

Thus tranflated by Mr. Dryden;

The Mares to Cliffs of rugged Rocks repair,
And, with wide Noftrils, fnuff the Western Air:
When (wondrous to relate) the Parent Wind,
Without the Stallion, propagates the Kind.

Then, fir'd with amorous Rage, they take their Flight
Thro' Plains, and mount the Hill's unequal Height.
Nor to the North, nor to the rifing Sun,
Nor Southward to the rainy Regions run;
But boring to the Weft, and hov'ring there,
With gaping Mouths they draw prolific Air.

Now it is well known, that this fame Virgil was a great Natural Philofopher, as well as a Poet and a Farrier; and here we fee he confidently afferts, that it was very common for Mares to become pregnant, without any Coition, only by turning their Faces to the Weft, and fnuffing up the Wind in that Quarter: But all Naturalifts being agreed that there is a great Analogy and Similitude in the generation of all Animals, whether Bipeds or Quadrupeds, it occurred to me, that what had happened to a Mare, might, for this very Reason, happen to a Woman.

,

Thus was I got fuccessfully through two Steps of my Discovery: The great Woollafton has told me, that Animalcula were difperfed about in opportune Places, to be the Seed of all Generations; and the greater Virgil had told me, that certain Mares of his Acquaintance were impregnated by a West Wind, which, therefore I concluded to be one of those opportune Places, and confidered it as the proper Vehicle of these floating Embryos.

But

But not willing to rely on Hypothefis only, or prefume on the Authority of great Names, efpecially in this enlightened Age, where experimental Philofophy is fo triumphant, and nothing goes down that is not made obvious to our Senfes, I refolved to have Demonftration before I ventured to publish my Thoughts to the World. There are, I know, a droll Sett of Gentlemen, who think themselves authorised to tell any Lies in Print, and afterwards to quarrel with the World for not believing them: But. for my Part, I write purely and fimply for the Love of Truth, for the Use and Emolument of my Countrymen; and I fhould efteem myself the moft unworthy of all Beings, if I prefumed to amuse them with Fables, or abuse them with Forgeries.

Accordingly, after much Exercife of my Invention, I contrived a wonderful cylindrical, catoptrical, rotundo-concavo-convex Machine (whereof a very exact Print will speedily be published for the Satisfaction of the Curious, defigned by Mr. H-—11, and engraved by Mr V-rtu) which being hermetically fealed at one End, and electrified according to the niceft Laws of Electricity, I erected it in a convenient Attitude to the Weft, as a kind of Trap to intercept the floating Animalcula in that prolific Quarter of the Heavens. The Event answered my Expectation; and when I had caught a fufficient Number of these small, original, unexpanded Minims of Exiftence, I fpread them out carefully like Silkworms Eggs, upon white Paper; and then applying

L 4

my

my beft Microscope, plainly difcerned them to be little Men and Women, exact in all their Limbs and Lineaments, and ready to offer themselves little Candidates for Life, whenever they should happen to be imbibed with Air or Nutriment, and conveyed down into the Veffels of Generation.

After this firft Success in my Undertaking, I continued to make Experiments of various Kinds, too tedious to be related, for a whole Year, till I had at length fully established the Doctrine of Winds and Embryos; and I find that as other Infects are ufually brought by an Easterly Wind, your Human Infects are always wafted from the oppofite Quarter; the Swarms of both appear like Blights to the naked Eye; and both feem deftined to much the fame End of Exiftence, fruges confumere nati, born to confume the Fruits of the Ground.

Oftentimes, while I was viewing them through my Glass, my Imagination would turn romantic upon the Subject, and represent to me the great Variety of Fortune these Infects might go through, whenever they should happen to be called out into Day-light. I faid in my Mind, this little Reptile may be an Alexander, that a Faufting, another a Tully, and another a Mountebank; and I was ftruck with Admiration to confider how many Heroes, and Patriots, and Legiflators, and Monarchs, were now contained on a Sheet of Paper, whofe great Souls, in Time to come, may make them efteem the whole World too confined a Scene for their Ambition. I remembered

the

the Sarcasm of Juvenal, as true before Life as after Death, Expende Annibalem, &c. and I repeated, with a kind of Enthusiasm, thofe excellent Lines in Dr. Garth's Difpenfary;

Now he unfolds the faint and dawning Strife
Of infant Atoms kindling into Life;
How the dim Speck of Entity began

T'extend its recent Form, and ftretch to Man;
To how minute an Origin we owe

Young Ammon, Cæfar, and the

great Naffau.

But now the great Trial of all was come, which, I believe, would have puzzled a whole College of Physicians, and fet at nought all the confulting Powers of W-rw-k Lane. The preparatory Points were established to my entire Satisfaction, but whether Animalcula could be ripened into Exiftence, by paffing through the feminal Veffels of a Woman only, was ftill a Question; and how to make the Experiment, hic labor, illud opus. Very hard it was to know when a Woman had imbibed the necessary Seed; and harder ftill to reftrain her from all Com merce with Man, till the Experiment had Time to take Effect. If I made Choice of a married Woman, there the Difficulties were innumerable; or if I made Choice of a Maiden, Virginity has, in all Ages, been esteemed a very brittle Ware; and, I prefume, has not greatly mended its Nature of later Days. Sometimes I thought of taking a Wife, over whom I could ufurp an abfolute Authority, and lock her up till the Day of her Labour; but fearing the might grow defperate, when she should find I had only

married